Hooray! We broke ground last week for the new breezeway + garage addition. Thanks to the great work of Popp Excavating, the site work is already done!
Next up: concrete. As has been the case for months now, the weather is not cooperating. Our mason is likely a bit behind schedule finishing up another job since it has basically been pouring rain all week. Hopefully we'll be able to get started on the masonry this week.
The photo below, left, shows the old cistern which captured rain water. This was actually one of the things we thought was the coolest about the house when we bought it, so it was a little sad to see it go. The crew also uncovered the septic tank - behind the house! That was a bit of a surprise, but digging into a 130 year old house, nothing should really surprise us!
The photo on the right doesn't show the tank, but that is where it was. It was at the bottom of a hill, under the roof runoff, and right up tight to the house. We cleared a bunch of brush from behind the house to make room for a future patio and to improve drainage away from the house. Clearly, that tank wasn't serviceable, so the crew smashed it and filled it with sand. Day one and Ben already had to go back to the county office to apply for another permit!
The big machines did a great job and it was exciting to see what quick work they made of it! However, with the old stone foundation of the house, they didn't want to risk damaging it. So, Ben and Tom spent the whole day Friday hand digging and moving several thousand pounds of rocks out of the way to make room for new footings.
While they were up there working, a visitor named Allan stopped by. If we're remembering correctly, he's a nephew of Ralph Snyder, the former owner. Allan had lots of great stories to share and told Ben his memories of how the house used to be arranged. Apparently, one of the Garthes (Paul) - a relative of the previous owners- worked at GM/Frigidaire which may be the reason we ended up with the cool old Frigidaire in the "vulture shack." Eventually, it will be moving back in to roughly the same place it came from as a pantry!
That's all for now, but we're excited to be moving ahead quickly now on the new addition. Progress on the original house will likely be slow to non-existent until this piece is done. Stay tuned!
We took those sunny day opportunities to get back up to Northport to replace the tire on Ben's tractor and begin the much needed process of pulling out all the Autumn Olive on the property! We've made quite a dent, but still much, much more to be done!
So, it was just last week that the guys were able to hand dig the footings for the new construction. It was surprisingly hard digging for this area. Instead of the "sugar sand" we expected, it was mostly clay, gravel, and heavy loam. While not the easiest material to work with, we can sleep easy knowing that footings won't be moving any. The building inspector was happy with the work and gave us approval to pour concrete. Dan Largent, our mason , and his crew quickly installed the re-bar and leveled the wet concrete. 
